Mar.19, 07

Today, I read the story "Little Whistle's Dinner Party" to the students. I noticed that no matter how much they like to talk to each other during lessons, they are always attentive during read-alouds. They want to listen to the story, participate on predicting what might happen next, and they love to know what's on the next page. Therefore, it is important to engage them with quality learning. It is also a good way to hear them think aloud.

After reading the story, I told the students that they will be writing creative stories about their own toys. They can make up anything they want. They loved that! We brainstormed the potential ideas to place in the 5 Ws. However, they didn't have time to start their writing right away, because they had to go to gym. After they came back from gym, one student said to me, "It's too bad that we didn't get to write the story." I was surprised that she made this comment, and I also felt happy that she was interested and engaged.

After recess, they were off to write on their own. I was surprised by a few of the students who tend to trouble writing. Some of them wrote really creative stories! As teachers, we should try different topics to see what our students are interested in. In this case, I wouldn't know their creative talents if I didn't assign this writing assignment. A few students were confused and wrote a retell of the story. Although they were on the wrong track, their ability to retell the story showed me that they have improved in that area. Their writing was clear, and the pieces would have been fabulous retelling pieces.

Before lunch recess, I was walking to the office to photocopy something when I saw an elderly Chinese man standing at the stair case. I saw him about 2 weeks ago, and I've asked him in Chinese if he needed any help, but I found out that he was just waiting for his grand child to come down to get the lunch. Today when I saw him again, he waved at me. I felt really warm from the inside.

After lunch, I taught the students an Art lesson on recycling. I brought in garbage bags, newspapers, and scrap papers to show them how to make a "garbage bag penguin". They worked in groups, and I could tell that they were having a lot of fun! Group work is sometimes hard because they would start arguments and there would be problems in sharing, but I believe that if the work is fun, then they would be able to handle it.